Reinforced sidewalls are extremely important for Vanagons because their high center of gravity and narrow track puts excessive forces on the sidewalls! (Stand up and lean to one side and then imagine what would happen if your bones/ligaments etc were “mushy”!)

Some list members reported ‘cracks in the sidewalls’ — that is why it happens. The folks at Michelin have had more than a few of the wrong tires on Vanagons returned to them with cracked sidewalls, which can (and I don’t want to be alarmist here, but just inform) lead to what they call something like ‘bead failure’ (the inability of the bead to keep the tire on the rim I think) and resulting ‘catastrophic blowout.’ Not a pretty picture, not likely to happen, but a possibility in cases of extreme wear and something the list needs to be more aware of in my opinion.

This is why Michelin corporate was so adamant about the Agilis on the phone with me. One tech guy was not quite, but nearly, hysterical.

I hope this helps, and please, let’s be more conscientious about informing people – especially new list members/owners — about the sidewall considerations in tire shopping/purchasing — irrespective of what brand they chose.

If you know of any more brands that are available in the two sizes recommended for the Vanagon 14″ Rim please let me know and I will add them. However please include a link to a site where they are currently available to purchase. Also I am only interested in load range C or D tires that have the correct load rating for the Vanagon.

Tires are usually named with a series of codes. For example, one of the recommended tires for Vanagons is the ‘Yohohama Y356 LT 195/75 R14 (load range D)’. The latter part of this (195/75 R14) is a uniform code assigned to tires. This section tells you how to interpret this code.

Speed Rating

Sustained speed rating is designated by a letter code. Vanagons require a minimum speed rating of ‘R’. (Don’t be confused with ‘R’, though. In ‘195/75 R14’, the ‘R’ is means ‘radial’ and is not a speed rating.)

Wheel diameters are usually in inches and tire width in millimeters or a letter designation. In our example of ‘195/75 R14’, ‘195’ is the tire width in millimeters, and ’14’ is the wheel diameter in inches.

What is the diameter of a tire?
Here’s a table of tire diameters by width and profile, for your speedometer correction calculations. Eurotire, a nice-to-deal-with tire distributor in NJ, used to include this info and more in their catalogs.